"Your coverage should have explicitly stated that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war, which is in blatant violation of international law. Omitting this context risks normalizing Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity. Please keep in mind that my feedback is offered in good faith, with the intention of holding media accountable in its coverage of Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians."
March 27, 2025
To the CityNews newsroom,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) regarding your recent news segment by Erica Navidad, which aired on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 6:40:29 AM.
While the report was balanced overall, I take issue with the misleading language used when referring to the source of casualty figures. Specifically, the segment stated that the majority of civilians killed by Israeli airstrikes in the occupied Gaza Strip are women and children, “according to the Hamas-run health ministry.”
In mainstream media, reports of the death toll in Gaza are frequently accompanied by the label “Hamas-run,”with the implicit argument being that figures released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza are unreliable or politically motivated.
Just to illustrate, the National Post published an article on December 15th claiming that Hamas is inflating the numbers reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.[1] This baseless accusation has increasingly been adopted by the media as the default narrative, despite the fact that the Ministry’s numbers have historically been recognized as credible by the United States[2], United Nations[3], and the World Health Organization[4].
For instance, The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) relies on data from the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) to provide detailed breakdowns by gender and age in its reports. As of March 22, the following statistics were recorded – wherein Israel’s genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip has killed:
For the reasons outlined above, I urge you to refrain from using the term “Hamas-run” in future reporting and instead refer to the source simply as “Palestinian Health Ministry in occupied Gaza.”
Second, while your coverage mentions Israel’s blockade on the occupied Gaza Strip, it fails to mention that this practice constitutes a crime against humanity, defying one of the six provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January 2024, which explicitly requires Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza (Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip [South Africa v. Israel], Order of 26 January 2024).
By continuing to prohibit aid from entering, Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war, a practice condemned under international humanitarian law, specifically, article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which mandates that an occupying power is legally obligated to ensure that the civilian population has access to food and medical supplies.
Your coverage should have explicitly stated that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war, which is in blatant violation of international law. Omitting this context risks normalizing Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Please keep in mind that my feedback is offered in good faith, with the intention of holding media accountable in its coverage of Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians.
I hope CityNews views this as an opportunity to engage in constructive dialogue with CJPME in the interest of balanced, accurate, and fair reporting.
Warm regards,
Lynn Naji
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East